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Bring back Backgammon-to-lose

Posted By: phil simborg
Date: Tuesday, 22 April 2014, at 5:47 a.m.

All this talk about variations and side events reminds me of how much I miss my favorite side event of all times.

Each player makes the first three moves a badly as he possibly can, then you turn the board around and try to win from that position.

You will be playing a game in uncharted territory, and there will be great skill required to win the game...forget about reference positions and general rules of thumb...they won't apply for a while.

And there is also skill in making the worst possible moves.

Just to show you what a true game of skill this is, I have been told that when this game used to be offered at tournaments, nobody had a better record than Nack, and most agreed he was the best player at the time.

So please, anyone thinking about setting up a tournament in the future, consider this wonderful, fun, side event.

(This is not greatly dissimilar to RandomGammon which is a game where you start in very different, random positions. I came up with a set of rules for this game a few years ago, and one thing about this game is that the players start in very different positions, play and game, and then play again starting in the opposite position. And the positions I created were very goofy, sometimes with many checkers back, sometimes with many blots, and sometimes with huge stacks. Like Backgammon-to-lose you had to think creatively to figure out a game plan and your tactics..

Messages In This Thread

• Bring back Backgammon-to-lose
  phil simborg -- Tuesday, 22 April 2014, at 5:47 a.m.
  • Bring back Backgammon-to-lose
    garyo -- Tuesday, 22 April 2014, at 4:39 p.m.
  • Bring back Backgammon-to-lose
    Keene -- Tuesday, 22 April 2014, at 5:04 p.m.
  • I was playing this way for much of the last half of 2013
    neilkaz -- Thursday, 24 April 2014, at 11:10 p.m.